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Went this house today. I was seeking it out looking at house numbers and saw this heap in the middle of the block. I prayed, but wouldn't ya know it, that heap was a house.

Ok, this house was clearly made outof anything they could get thier hands on. The front porch was made out of old shipping pallets. The breaker box was outside on a pole with romex running inside to outlets lust laying on the floor. There were no lights in the house other than candles.

The furnace.....A 1966 Lennox 100,000btu unit was in the corner of the living room with gas flex connectors, one to the next attatched to from almost 8 feet away. There was no plenum or duct work, it just dumped into the room. It was powered by an extension cord with the end cut off and it was hard wired in. There was no bottom door and the flue was single wall through the scrap metal ceiling/roof. Needless to say I condemned the unit since well, it's clear why.

The job was for an appliance protection program from one of our utilities and they were astounded to hear what I had to say. They said something would be done to help the people, it's out of my hands now.

There are 3 ways to do anything in life; Good, Fast, Slow: You can pick any 2.

i do sub-contract work for state funded non-profit organization that does weatherization and furnace work to low-income families homes and i see a lot of stuff like that on pretty much job to job basis...the problem a lot of times is that these houses where never built with the heating and cooling requirements taken into account for....and everything is done on a budget....so not all the time everything gets done that needs to be done...

MO-FLO.....we do work for a low income assistance program too but this was by far the worst I have seen. She said she tried for low income assistance but made too much money , how? and what is she spending it on? I did kinda feel bad for the 5 kids that lived there though.

Frozensolid....well that's just funny, I don't care who you are, that's funny stuff.

Midhvac....I told her to check around, telling her we wouldn't be cheap. If need be I'll totally bid-out of it.

Bradjmx4....ofcourse she didn't LOL

This was by far the worst I've seen ever and I won't send my installer in there for no amount of money. He'd probably quit if I tried to make him. The energy company is trying to decide what to do about the breaker box. The utility worker was shocked when he pulled up to the house. What shocked me was he got out and said, "oh yeah, I've been here before, looks like they've cleaned stuff up a bit." I Haven't decided if he was serious yet since he couldn't keep a straight face the whole time.

There are 3 ways to do anything in life; Good, Fast, Slow: You can pick any 2.

just to clarify what i was talking about earlier....some of these dwellings are not worth the money it takes to get everything up to code....in the program i work with all mechanical issues are dealt with first....this includes heating system,venting,gas=lines,water heaters,duct system.,,,now they are adding ventilation...kitchen,bath,whole house......after these areas are dealt with the rest of budget goes towards doors,windows,insulation,weatherstripping......i can pretty much do away their whole budget on mechanical alone....this doesn't count towards electrical,roofing,plumbing,etc......but times are tough and you do what you can with what you got to work with......any help to these people is better than none...IMO...it's just a shame that liability issue gets in the way because of budget issues with the job....but the money is for going into these places because these places are usually the places where energy is wasted the most..know what i mean???

Here the weatherization guys pick on everything. I can't tell ya how many flues I have extended 2 foot that have been like that for 20+ years, etc.

What really pisses me off is going to a house in the weatherization program and pull up to see thier 4 fancy cars, 6 four-wheelers, and nice Harley only to walk in and see a TV taller than me, you know, it's BS.

On this job though, like any other I am not turing it down because of liability, cause I would only make EVERYTHING right or I wouldn't do it, so it would cost 'em, but I don't feel my installer needs to work in those conditions. I mean, no kidding, the tools in my little mechanical bag I carried in that hut was worth more than the entire property.

What gets me is some of the people that should get some of that money and don't qualify for one reason or another. I hate seeing people that actually do try to make something of themselves but have bad luck and then have to tell them thier furnace is condemned. Really elderly people aren't very fun to tell either. However, these people that sit around all day and suck up government money, forget it, I'll shut them down no problem. All they have to do is get off the couch and the drugs and get a job and they'd be fine, but that would be too damn hard I guess.

Ok, done with that little rant

There are 3 ways to do anything in life; Good, Fast, Slow: You can pick any 2.

Here's a job for ya. I wish I had a picture! There's a house that over looks a creek. lol. What I mean is that the front porch is the only thing touching solid ground. The rest of the house "stands" on single column blocks. I'll bet the back of the house is 30 ft. off the ground. All of the plumbing is there to see underneath the house, I don't know how it keeps from freezing. I'd be afraid to break wind in that house!